#003 - First Officer’s log -- I never thought it’d happen to me, but…
If you suggested that I’m really only doing this whole thing for the Riker sex jokes, I would have a hard time arguing.
I’m maybe wasting material for a future comic in talking about this, but it’s not difficult to watch some Riker-centric scenes in TNG and come to the conclusion that his face is just a straight-up sex thermometer. Like, any time Riker is smiling, he’s ready to go. Whomever or whatever. That smile is upstairs and downstairs. Which makes those crestfallen moments when the smile wilts a little bit funnier.
You might object on the grounds that Riker smiles sometimes in scenes with no obvious erotic overtones. I’m saying that’s a failure of imagination. The man’s got some serious depths, psychosexually speaking.
Geordi: Okay, everybody, thanks for coming. Let’s start with the bad news…
Geordi: Damage from that attack earlier has knocked the holodecks out of commission indefinitely.
Data: Geordi, that will seriously interfere with my Sherlock Holmes holo-adventures.
Worf: And my batleth training regimen!
Miles: And my handball tournament! We’re in the quarterfinals!
Riker: And my Andorian sex fantas–
Troi: …
Riker: …
Riker: My…Andorian…sects…fantasia. It’s — it’s a religious opera.
Picard: …
Riker: Very spiritual people, the Andorians.
"Riker is horny" was definitely one of the main character notes I was carrying around in my head when I first started making this strip. It helps that Riker was, in fact, cheerfully horny by TNG standards, a guy who definitely (a) fucks and (b) has a pretty good and generous attitude about it, even if that mostly just showed up in soft focus flirtations in the era of network TV.
His horniness ended up as something I leaned into an awful lot in the strip. Lazily? Probably, but also earnestly and joyfully. He's fun as the hornball of the group. I also made him a bit dumb when it was convenient, which I don't feel bad about because himbo is a noble profession; but I also made him a little actively-sleazy and or reflexively hetero once or twice in a way that in retrospect felt like it was selling both canon Riker and the spirit of the show and this strip short. We love our horny Number One because he's also ethical and open-minded about it.